Senior Lee Rosen has seen a fair amount of changes in the squash team in his four years at Penn. He's gone from No. 5 to No. 1 within the team rankings. He's seen elite players come and go. But he's never seen his Quakers lose to Dartmouth.
This weekend, however, Rosen is in danger of seeing his team fall to the Big Green (11-3), whom the Quakers (6-5) will travel to play on Sunday after a Saturday match at Harvard (4-1).
The Quakers have moved up to No. 9 in the nation, while Dartmouth is sitting pretty at No. 6 and the perenially-solid Crimson remain at No. 3.
Rosen, however, isn't fazed by the prospect of a winless weekend.
"For me, I want to come out with two wins," he said. "I've got two winnable matches and I expect to win them."
That would mean besting Dartmouth's No. 1, Andrew Boumford, and Harvard's Colin West, last year's Ivy Rookie of the Year who is currently ranked No. 6 in the nation.
West is just one of the Crimson's many talented players; they boast six in the College Squash Association's top 40 in the nation. Rosen is Penn's lone player to make that cut.
It's a tall order for the Quakers to come out of the weekend with a pair of wins, but coach Craig Thorpe-Clark thinks that the jitters can do his players good.
"I think there is great anticipation for playing these matches because we really feel we can win both of them," he said after Wednesday's 9-0 loss to Princeton.
"Nervousness should be translated into them getting excited for the match, looking for the opportunity to compete and maybe hand out to their opponent what we went through tonight."
In a sport as predictable as squash, some wouldn't mind penciling in Penn for a couple of losses before the weekend even begins. But senior Ryan Rayfield is going in the opposite direction.
"We are ranked lower than we should be as of now, and after we win these two matches this weekend we get put up into the top-five ranking," said Rayfield, who will likely play at No. 9.
"After we win this weekend it will be a perfect lead-in into the next weekend, and that's why we need to win."
It's certainly a brash outlook to take, but for a team fighting to stay above .500, a bit of a spark may not be the worst thing in the world.
Thorpe-Clark also believes that his team is better than it has shown so far this season, but doesn't share Rayfield's cocksure viewpoint.
"I don't like to look at it that way," he said, "but I think we would feel comfortable with a win or two wins this weekend."
